Mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, contemporary mobile telephones, hand-held and pocket-sized computers, tablet personal computers and the like, are becoming important and popular user tools. In general, they have become small enough to be extremely convenient, while consuming less battery power, and at the same time have become capable of running more powerful applications.
Such devices are able to connect to networks, including the Internet, but also can communicate in other ways, including via Short Message Service, a standard for sending short alpha-numeric messages (maximum 160 characters) to or from mobile phones in mobile communications networks. Contemporary mobile devices such as a Pocket PC thus may present various types of information to users. Likewise, mobile telephones such as those running Microsoft Windows® Mobile software for Smartphones allow users to make conventional mobile telephone calls, send and receive SMS messages, and also access the Internet, as well as send and receive e-mails and files, store contacts, maintain appointments and do many other things contemporary computers can now do.
Information providers such as ISVs, service providers, users and programs would benefit from being able to send brief status information to a mobile device that a program (e.g., an application program or operating system component) can receive. For example, a service may want to provide stock quote updates to subscribers' mobile devices, whereby an application program could display or otherwise process the updates accordingly. An ISV may want to synchronize some data on a device with a database. Players of game programs on distinct devices may want to exchange moves with each other, with each other player's game program receiving the move data and automatically handling the move. While such communications can be accomplished via custom mechanisms, it would be more desirable to communicate the necessary information using the architecture and much of the software that is already present on the device. This would greatly reduce the amount of custom software that the information provider would need to have installed on the mobile device, while at the same time conserving resources such as memory.